DP Clean Tech, a renewable energy company based out of China that utilizes Danish waste-to-energy technology, has announced a partnership with Cambridge Industries Limited, based in Ethiopia. The partnership is intended to work on biomass and waste energy projects throughout Africa. The partnership is focusing most of its efforts in east Africa for now, with projects announced in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, and Senegal. The first project secured is in consortium with China National Electrical Engineering Corporation to create a waste-to-energy plant in Addis Adaba. The plant is located next to Ethiopia’s largest landfill, the Reppie Landfill, and will use combustion technology to create electricity and use an all-dry flue gas treatment system to meet emission requirements. The consortium and the waste-to-energy project is part of a broad campaign by the Ethiopian government to promote renewable energy development. Though 77% of Ethiopia’s population lacks access to electricity, the government has made renewable energy generation a high priority and a stimuli for economic development. Ethiopia’s 5 year growth and transformation plan aims to increase hydropower generation five-fold from 2,000 MW to 10,000 MW and double the amount of electrical customers. Last November the Ashegoda Wind Farm became the largest wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa, with 400 GWh produced a year. Further renewable energy projects include the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, intended to generate hydropower from the Nile.

According to new numbers released by the FERC, the American solar industry added more new wattage than the coal industry. This is the first time this has happened. The year was truly impressive for solar, which finished only behind natural gas in terms of new electrical generation in 2013. Additionally, the industry created 24,000 new jobs, bring the industry’s total employment up to 142,000. In the first 9 months of 2013, renewable sources accounted for over 30% of new wattage added, with 3,218 MW of renewable energy capacity added during that timeframe. Solar was by far the most productive of the renewable energy sources, with 146 new plants creating 1,935 new MW. It was followed by 9 new plants for wind energy creating 961 MW and biomass at 192 MW. By comparison, coal created 1,543 new MW (14.40% of the total new generation capacity), oil created 27 MW (.25%), and nuclear added none. All sources fell far below the new production of energy from natural gas. Natural gas added 51 units with some 5,854 MW installed during the timeframe. Total electrical generation from renewables now stands at 15.68% of the total installed U.S. operating generating capacity, out-producing nuclear and oil combined.

The EU has set its greenhouse gas goal at 40% under 1990 levels by the year 2030. The EU also hopes to generate 27% of its energy from renewable sources by that year. The EU has long been a leader on emission regulation and climate change, with significant investments in solar and wind energy generation systems. Four years ago the EU announced its 20/20/20 plan to increase renewable energy generation by 20%, decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and increase energy efficiency by 20%. It is currently on track to meet two of those targets, with the energy efficiency goal still lagging behind. It has already made substantial progress. Emissions have fallen 18% from 1990, while the economy has grown 45%. Renewable sources currently make up 12.7% of the EU’s energy consumption. It was difficult to reach a unified target among the fragmented base of the EU, and the targets have received criticism from environmental activists and NGOs, hoping for more challenging targets. However, Frank Thies of the European Industry Photovoltaic Association, said “The Commissioner’s analysis clearly shows that renewables help reduce wholesale electricity prices, but those benefits aren’t being passed onto the final consumer.” Further complaints were made that the agreement would also allow hydraulic fracturing wells for natural gas into the European Union for the first time.

A paper produced by the Institute for Security Studies suggests that fracking in South Africa should be allowed alongside a small tax. The tax would go to fund renewable energy development in the nation. South Africa is one of the world’s fast increasing markets for renewable energy, but still relies on coal plants for much of its production. The discovery that fracking could produce natural gas in the Karoo region of the nation quickly led to hopes of a shale gas energy boom, but it was followed by a nationwide ban on fracking. However, the ban was later reversed, the first example of the lifting of a moratorium on fracking. The Karoo shale gas reserve is rich, believed to be the eight largest reserve in the world, but the region lacks the water necessary for high production fracking. The authors of the ISS paper, researchers at the University of Colorado, believe that a small tax would allow South Africa to benefit from its resource wealth without becoming reliant on the technology and bringing water scarcity to Karoo.

By outsourcing their manufacturing, the US and Europe are responsible for a significant portion of the pollution in developing nations like China.New research also shows, however, that air pollution from China travels across the Pacific to the western US, decreasing air quality.In total, the take-away from these studies may be to reaffirm that the causes of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental pollutants are not easily isolated, nor do their effects respect national boundaries.In the words of one of the study’s coauthors,…there may be plenty of blame to go around.Emissions of greenhouse gases grew twice as fast in the decade from 2000 to 2009 than they had in the previous three decades, according to a draft of the Working Group III report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) read by the Guardian.Developing nations played a significant role in accelerating the growth of greenhouse gases — in large part because their economies rely on carbon-heavy industries and factories that produce goods for rich nations like the US and Europe.Of the 14 gigatonnes (GT) per year that developing nations now emit, around 2 GT are due to the production of export goods. Cynthia Cummis, an expert on greenhouse gas accounting at the World Resources Institute, said:If we are just looking at our national inventory to understand the emissions trends, it is just not telling the full picture of our impacts. We need to understand the full life cycle of all the goods and services that we are purchasing and selling.And it’s not just goods and products that rich nations are importing, but also the consequences of air pollution like black carbon.Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that some of the air pollution seen on the west coast of the US, such as the infamous smog in Los Angeles, is exacerbated by coal burned in China.University of California at Irvine scientist Steve Davis, one of the study’s co-authors, said in a statement:We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us. Given the complaints about how Chinese pollution is corrupting other countries’ air, this paper shows that there may be plenty of blame to go around.The study identified that as much as 25% of sulfate air pollution on the California coastline and one day of severe air pollution per year in Los Angeles can be sourced back to China’s export manufacturing.The authors of encourage greater international cooperation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.These studies complicate attempts to cleanly assign responsibility for climate change and environmental degradation.At a recent fundraiser for the Democratic party, US President Barack Obama remarked that the US will be “four feet underwater” if developing nations like China and India consume fossil fuels like the US does.His remarks acknowledge the global and complex nature of climate change — that greenhouse gas emissions from one nation exacerbate climate impacts everywhere.They fail to address, however, the role that high US consumption plays in driving the rapidly growing emissions of nations like China.The draft of the IPCC obtained by the Guardianstates:A growing share of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in developing countries is released in the production of goods and services exported, notably from upper-middle-income countries to high-income countries.- See more at: http://tcktcktck.org/2014/01/rich-nations-export-emissions-developing-nations-cant-avoid-consequences/60054#sthash.fIbaXzO8.dpuf